PUNE: CA Bhavani Devi sometimes gets transported from France to Italy. The transition is not deliberate. Most of the time it happens in her subconscious mind. And she is working extra hours to put a halt to this journey before the Paris Games, next year.
Bhavani, 29, who became the first Indian fencer to make it to the Olympics with her participation in the Tokyo Games, has been trying to adjust to the training style of coach Christian Bauer, a Frenchman, after having worked with Italian Nicola Zanotti. She joined Bauer’s academy after the Tokyo Games in 2021.
She admits she is finding it difficult to adjust, but she knows it is going to change soon.
“In training, my performance has been going up, but in competitions, it isn’t consistent. I lose at the borderline. It's not like I am fencing bad. I'm still not fully ready with this kind of training. Italian fencing is totally different, and I've We don’t have a lot of time so I must prepare very quickly and adapt to that,” Bhavani, who was in Pune for the fencing Nationals, told TOI.
“I am adapting well, but to maintain consistency is hard. But I'm positive, my coach is positive. Maybe I am not winning now because of the transition. But when the change is complete, my results will be much better.”
She is putting in extra hours to learn as quickly as she can. “I trained for three hours earlier, I'm doing six hours here.”
Despite her hectic training and competition schedule, Bhavani participated in the Nationals and won her 11th individual medal.
“For me, winning the national title is important. And winning it again and again is more important. I have to do well, even though it’s a national competition and the level is very different. Still, it’s tough for athletes like us, who train with different levels of athletes. Coming back to this level, you have to fence in a
particular way to win the bout,” the Tamil Nadu fencer said.
